Dakota County Bird Trip

Saturday, I led a field trip with my buddy Stan Tekiela to Dakota County, through Staring Lake Outdoor Center. It was a small group and loads of fun. I love birding this place because it's just south of the Twin Cities metro area and you can see some great birds: loggerhead shrike, dickcissel, grasshopper sparrow, indigo bunting, even a Swainson's hawk (they're not really supposed to be in Minnesota).

We started the morning by checking one of the Outdoor Center's bluebird boxes. Some of the participants got to hold a young bluebird--what a great way to start a Saturday morning!

I had driven our route on Friday looking for target birds and didn't find all of them but hoped for the best on Saturday. I did find lots of song sparrows (above). It's interesting to note the abundance of corn growing in many of the fields and I wondered how much more there will be in the coming years with the popularity of ethanol. One spot that has traditionally been great for yellow-headed blackbirds was all corn.

I like going with Stan, because he likes to help put the adventure in a trip.

Case in point, the above photo. Note in the background the sign reads "Road Closed"--that's where we parked. Well, this was our unplanned last stop of the day. We had seen all target species except for dickcissel. I had an email with me that someone in the past week had seen dickcissel off of Hwy 52 and 117th Street--just off the exit. That was on our way back to the Outdoor Center, so we decided to stop there, what did we have to lose? As we drove on the exit, I had my window down and I immediately heard, "dick dick cissel cissel" and there on the exit sign was a dickcissel. Stan pulled his vehicle over right on the exit, I went a little further ahead to an area blocked off for construction. We hopped out and everyone got a good look at the dickcissel.

Incidentally, we were across the highway from the Koch Refinery. Even though we were far away, my spotting scope though aimed at the dickcissel, was pointing towards the refinery. Two security vehicles approached us in less than five minutes to insure that we were not taking any photos--I opted to not try and digiscope the dickcissel.

One of the target species (and on that put on the best show was a northern shrike). I had seen one along this stretch of road on Friday and at first I drove past it, but Stan called out on the two way radio, "Shrike." We pulled back and there it was perched on a telephone pole.

Look at that little shrike loaf. The bird was totally dosing off--slacker. It was hunkered down and periodically the eyes would close--certainly wasn't too stressed out by us humans. I even pulled out my Handheld Birds and played the call of the northern shrike versus the loggerhead and it still continued to dose off.

Eventually, the shrike did wake up and went through a series of stretches. Here is your basic wing stretch.

And this? I don't know, perhaps a bird version of downward dog? I'd never seen a shrike stretch quite like this before--kind of a butt up pose. Boy, it doesn't look anything like it does in field guides. After this stretch it flew across the street to some spruce trees and teed up. It looked like it was on the hunt. I wonder if the shrike was thinking, "Alright, you got your pictures, you got to see me, I'm off the clock, so buzz off."

Another highlight of the day was watching some young kestrels that had recently left the nest learning to fly and hunt. The young birds would fly and perch right over us...that is until the adults showed up and started screeching a warning.

All and all a fun time. Up next is a bee entry. Brace yourself, we find out what happened to Kitty.

Goldfinch Date

I saw goldfinches gathering nesting material today. At distance, their coloring really blended in with the dull yellow of the vegetation. You would think the males would pop out more. This female appeared to be supervising the male's gathering.

But perhaps she was just begging for a kiss? He didn't give her any nesting material, he actually dropped what he had to bill tap with her. She had started coming towards him, wings slightly fluttering, giving a soft call and then they had a quick bill peck. No copulation occurred, but I'm sure it was some sort of pair bonding.

She flew away, and he continued to gather the soft thistle down. I wonder what goldfinches used for nesting material before thistle was introduced to North America?

Minor Monarch Release

Yesterday when I was trying to get ready to go to The Raptor Center, I noticed that one of my monarch chrysalises was about ready emerge. Wow, that was fast. Seemed like it was only yesterday this guys made the pretty, green chrysalis. Right before the monarch emerges, the chrysalis turns dark and you can see the butterfly on the inside. I wish I could have gotten a photo of it as soon as it came out--they look deformed. Ah well, another time.

When I came home from TRC, I made some lunch and sat on the couch...I noticed the chrysalis was empty and paused to try and see where the butterfly was hanging out in my apartment. Then I noticed some fluttering and found it at one of the windows. It had emerged, had plenty of time to pump moisture into it's wings and was ready for forage for nectar. I didn't see any dark spots on the lower wings, which means this was a female monarch. I opened the window and tried to get a video of her release from my apartment:

After she landed, I set up my digiscoping equipment and got a few shots of the monarch resting on a tree:

Then she flew off to search for nectar. She will also search for a male for mating and eggs will grow into the monarchs who will migrate south into Mexico this fall.

The Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast

Yo, Mom, Terri--y'all are gonna want to pay attention to this entry. I think we need to do a weekend at this place!

Wednesday, Explore Minnesota started it's pilot project of Bed & Breakfasts & Birds (BBB). What we are trying to do is help teach bed and breakfasts how to market to birders who travel around looking for birds. We also want to help people become local bird guides. Many people guide, but very few are paid what they are worth (if at all). The goal was also to get guides a chance to meet bed and breakfast owners in their area so they could get more business. The B&Bs could offer birding packages to guests or have a guide list on hand for guests who visit and are looking for someone to take them out. The end of the workshop featured a short walk for the guides to show their birding skills.

Bobolinks were a hit with many of the B&B owners--many of whom hadn't really noticed them before. Man, I must say, this year has been the year of the bobolink for me. I remember being a kid and looking through my field guides thinking about how cool it must be to see and hear one of those.

The workshop was hosted at the Loghouse and Homestead Bed and Breakfast in Vergas, MN owned by Suzanne Tweten. This is the Loghouse, it was built circa 1889 by Suzanne's great-great grandparents! There are framed bits of newspaper throughout the loghouse that were found inside the walls, it's cozy and beautiful and perfect for a girlfriend getaway--or birding getaway.

When Explore Minnesota was making my lodging arrangements, they asked if I had a room preference. Being the wiseacre I am, I said that I wanted the least crappy room. So, I ended up in the Fredholm Suite--complete with hot tub, a box of chocolates, and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. Organic, fair-trade coffee awaited me in the room--at night I could hear loons singing off of Spirit Lake in front of the B&B. It was an almost perfect night--except for the lack of Non Birding Bill.

The property is loaded with ruby-throated hummingbirds, this male is flaring out his wings and tail fighting for his position on the feeder. A female hummingbird had taken hold of this feeder, and some males she allowed to feed and others she chased off. After a little flaring, this male was allowed to stay. Later on, they both retreated to a tree and he started a mating display, his flare up at the feeder must have appealed to her.

Here is the female chasing off a different male. Check out the differences in the tail. You can see white tips to the tail feathers of the female on the feeder. There is no white on the male's tail in the top left hand corner of the photo. Female ruby-throats are kind of little Murphy Browns. They mate with the males, drive them out of the territory, build the nest and raise the chicks completely on their own.

I had timed my travel to this meeting to get some digiscoping done. The meeting and workshop started at 10am on Wednesday morning and was about three and a half hours from where I lived. I drove up Wednesday before the meeting, so that way I could spend the night and digiscope like crazy Thursday morning and take my time driving back to the Twin Cities. Above is Chloe, the Suzanne's spaniel showing me that my breakfast was ready. The food served at this place is FANTASTIC. Suzanne served me a broccoli, cheese, ham and egg dish with olive bread. My favorite part was the warm blueberries with cream cheese. Not only is the food tasty, they also grow some of the ingredients right there on the property and try to buy food locally as often as possible.

Suzanne does what she can for birds on her property, like providing housing for bluebirds (above), being careful with land management and taking dropped off cats to the local shelter.

Chipping sparrows nest in many of the trees. This one was preening his feathers and I have so many weird photos of him--but he was in great light, so I had to post them. Kind of reminds me of Audubon paintings--he was always posing birds in weird ways. Seriously, has anyone ever seen an egret pose like this?

Cedar waxwings acted like they were nesting right out side my window, but I was unable to find it.

The highlight bird for me was this male golden-winged warbler. This was the mellowest warbler I have ever seen. One of the guides had noticed him during the walk and saw that he was carrying a caterpillar around--as if on his way to feed chicks. When I saw him, he was singing on territory and not bothered by me in the slightest.

He was even stretching! Warblers are tough birds to digiscope, so I couldn't believe my luck in this one being so relaxed and easy to see. I think I took about 92 photos of him in all different kinds of light. I was even able to get a video of his song:

Isn't that just a weird song for a bird that looks like that? Many associate warblers with musical twittery calls, and this guy sounds like Froggy from The Lil' Rascals.

The trails are well maintained and you can do a prairie loop or walk though woods. I will warn, it's quite tick heavy this year in Minnesota. Something interesting that I'm noticing is that when I wear fruitier smelling lotions, I get fewer ticks on me. On Wednesday when I was walking around, I had on "Juniper Breeze" and had three ticks--three wood ticks and one deer tick (all attached). Thursday, I wore "Cherry Blossom" spent way more time in tall grass areas and found only one wood tick and it was not attached, but crawling around on my hip. I started noting this at the Detroit Lakes festival when people were really getting ticks, and I was getting very few. I was wearing Cherry Blossom then as well. Something to think about.

And, I have to end this on another bobolink photo. If you're going to be up and around the northwestern end of the state, I highly recommend staying at the Loghouse and Homestead, there's great birding on the property and there are quite a few birding areas nearby including Rothsay Prairie, Fergus Falls, and Tamarac NWR just to name a few.

Okay, I forgot I had a bobolink video, so I'm going to end with a singing bobolink:

A Reason To Visit Fergus Falls, MN

Just came back from a magical experience in Vergas, MN--more on that later, for now, I present Fergus Falls, MN.

And I don't just mean the giant otter statue in the park...at least I think it's an otter since it's in Otter Tail County. But to me, this looks like a weasel. Whatever it is, it's the animal statue in the city park off of State Hwy 59 in Fergus Falls. Anyway, it's not the reason I'm talking about to visit Fergus Falls.

Okay, and this isn't the reason I'm going to point out either, but I did get a kick out of the idea that a local church in Fergus Fall is bribing members to show up with the promise of free coffee and donuts.

This, my friends, is the reason to visit Fergus Falls. It's a little island in the city park. What could be so cool about that?

It's chock full of great egrets, they use it as a nesting rookery. I have never stopped at Fergus Falls--even though I pass quite a bit in my travels, but my buddy Carrol Henderson told me about the rookery in the city park that I stopped by today for lunch, gas, and to digiscope the nesting egrets.

The island is so close to the parking lot, that it's easy to get up close shots or just casual views of all the nesting great egrets. And in case you haven't noticed yet--take a look at those toes, hanging out over the side of the nest! Cute...in an extra terrestrial kind of way.

I loved watching the adult fly in. At first approach, they looked very dignified and heron-like with their necks tucked in, but in the final descent, their necks shot out, their long legs would splay, and they just looked out of control as they tried to land on a branch.

But, when the adults got to the nest, it was all business feeding the chicks and then just standing guard over them for awhile. The chicks actually made quite a bit of noise. It almost sounded like locusts trilling, with their monotonous buzzy, nasally begging calls. I tried to get a video with sound, but the wind was too high and interfered with the mic on the digital camera.

As I was digiscoping the great egrets, I noticed that I could hear some sounds behind me. It was a little different than the call the young egrets were making. I decided to go investigate.

A quick scan of the pine trees in the park revealed dozens of black-crowned night-heron nests. Perhaps the night-herons found the great egrets too noisy, or preferred to be along the shores of the park, as opposed to the islands, but any conifer in the park that was next to the lake had one, if not more black-crowned night-heron nests.

While I was at the city park in Fergus Falls, quite a few vehicles pulled up to watch the egret rookery. Many of them obviously hadn't noticed the night-heron nests---otherwise they wouldn't have parked directly underneath them like the car in the above photo. I love birds, and I know bird poop getting on cars is a fact of life, but when it comes to a bird the size of a night-heron, I would not want to tempt fate by parking directly beneath a couple of nests.

Scanning the ground directly beneath the nests revealed several night-heron egg shells and a few dead night-heron chicks (and poop). From my experience going out to heron and pelican rookeries for banding, I'm always amazed that any heron (or pelican) survives beyond hatching from the egg. Survival is tough--older siblings or other birds try to kill and eat you, if you fall from the nest too early your parents will ignore you and you will starve, all the nests are piled above each other, so birds are pooping all over each other--it's just a mess. But survive, they do...somehow.

So, if you find yourself in Fergus Falls, check out the city park for herons and egrets. It's an easy photo opportunity and one of the most easily accessible heron and egret rookeries I know of in Minnesota.

Color in North Dakota

There appears to be a general lack of comments after the last entry. Non Birding Bill said the reasons was that all the birds were just brown, brown, brown, brown.

After all the brown birds in the previous entry, I wanted to post some of the colorful things we saw. This red-winged blackbird was in full on mating mode. A female was working her way through the cattails and he wanted her attention in the worst way.

Yellow-headed blackbirds were all over the place. I never get tired of these guys, they are just so cool. Their song isn't that musical, but I still enjoy that throaty screech.

Any farm that had a shelter belt of trees was just covered in birds like this yellow warbler. When trees are few and far between, a shelter belt is prime real estate.

Not all the color came in the form of birds. This sphinx moth was covered in a delicate blushy pink. Incidentally, this is the same type of moth that the eastern kingbird was trying to eat last week.

All the brown on many of the bird species serves an important purpose--they blend in very well with the surrounding vegetation. There's a nest here, can you see it?

Move the grasses and it there are two eggs. A mourning dove flushed from this spot as we were walking along. I've never seen one nest on the ground.

On Sunday, I did do some driving around before I hit the highway home. I was meandering down this gravel road following the map--passing some great birds. I kept following the map, came to an expected intersection and then noticed that the condition of the road seriously deteriorated...

According to the map, this goes on for at least another five miles. I decided to head south instead of continuing east.

Which I was so glad that I did! I came upon the uber colorful ruddy duck! I love these ducks and the boys were close to the road and displaying for a female lurking nearby. I think the male in the middle totally embodies this description by Arthur Cleveland Bent:

"He knows he is handsome as he glides smoothly along without a ripple, his saucy sprigtail held erect or even pointed forward till it nearly meets his upturned head; he seems to strut like a miniature turkey gobbler."

Bent continues, "His mate knows that he is handsome, too..."

"...he approaches her with his head stretched up to the full extent of his short neck and his eyes gleaming under two swollen protuberances above them like the eyes of a frog; with his chest puffed out like a pouter pigeon, he bows and nods, slapping his broad blue bill against his ruddy breast; its tip striking water and making a soft, clucking sound."

Hoo-wee. Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?

Anyway, as you can see, there were some very colorful birds in North Dakota.

Birding So Good, It Makes Ghosts Cry

Brace yourself for another brown bird bonanza.

And if you watch Hong Kong movies, you get that reference in the subject line. So, thinking back to my bird watching experience on the prairie, I keep humming the Shirley Bassey version of Where Do I Begin?: Where do I begin? To tell the story of how great the birds can be? The sweet old story that is out on the prairie, the simple truth about the birds that you can see. Where do I start?

At the start of this entry you can see our group spread out and that white speck in the distance is our motor coach. Behind me...

...you can see miles of vast grassland. This was taken at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge--one of the many places we birded during the festival. I could have meandered around here for a full day quite easily. We saw so many great birds, we never really had time to see the infamous pelican colony that this refuge is known for. Julie Zickefoose was the keynote speaker and she added photos of sweeping vistas with bison roaming. She got a tad choked up when she tried to talk about the prairie and I think understood what she was saying. We have only remnants of the prairie left, when at one time it was so unbelievably vast and stretched for miles. How we as a species managed to reduce it to such a small amount that is so fragile it could easily disappear is equally unbelievable.

One of the main attractions of the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival is the chance to see grassland sparrows--the most common one we found was the savanna sparrow (above). Some of the non birding blog readers are probably starting to roll their eyes asking "Seriously, brown birds?" But these aren't the brown birds (house sparrows) that crowd out other birds at the feeder. These are more shy, unassuming singers that if you could, would jump at the chance to attract them. Besides, that sparrow isn't all brown--note the yellow spots on the crown?

The second most common was the grasshopper sparrow. Even this little bird isn't all brown--note the hint of yellow on his shoulders? We have quite a few grasshopper and savanna sparrows where I live. Their songs can sound very similar, but a great way to learn them is to sit in some grasslands and listen to the two birds side by side, and you can tell them apart. The grasshopper sparrow definitely has a more buzzy sounding song. Interesting fact according to National Geographic Handheld Guide to Birds: grasshopper sparrows shake off the legs of grasshoppers before feeding them to their young.

This distant bird is a Le Conte's sparrow--a life bird that many festival attendees needed for their lists. These guys can be found in wet grasslands and meadows--they are incredibly secretive which makes them hard to see. The look very similar to Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrows (below) and for me, the best way to tell them apart is by song--which this guy was doing with gusto.

We did get lots of looks at Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrows. We were on our way to look for a Le Conte's when this one popped up about ten feet away. One of the women on the field trip asked which one it was and before anyone could answer, it gave the sharp-tailed call loud and clear. It really is a pretty sparrow, its front is a delightful pumpkin orange color. Wouldn't it be cool if this pretty little brown bird showed up at your feeders--not going to happen, but would be cool nonetheless.

The big target sparrow was the Baird's sparrow. These guys are tricky. They don't return to the exact same spot to nest every year. If there is a slight change, they move one--sometimes several miles away. This is probably an adaptation from long ago when the prairie was ruled by wild buffalo grazing and wild fires. Now, they are affected by change, but don't seem to appreciate the human recreation of prairie, so their options for nesting habitat get more and more limited every year. Our guides on the trip had a Baird's staked out and we could hear it in the distance almost as soon as we got off the bus. When we found it far away through our scopes in dawn's early light--we felt very fortunate.

Then we got closer and here is a photo of the bird from behind.

And then we got ever closer and were able to change position to get the Baird's sparrow in perfect light. Last year I heard and saw Baird's sparrow but not a look like this--I couldn't believe our fortune and that the bird simply ignored us.

Then we got even closer--a digiscoper's paradise! We were able to take so many photos of the bird, and it wouldn't leave. It seemed wrong somehow to just walk away from it, but this bird was not budging from its singing perch. Two packed bus loads of birders got to see the Baird's and anyone with digiscoping or photography equipment got incredible shots. The song was so clear and one of my favorite songs, I decided to up the ante by digivideoing the Baird's sparrow:

Isn't that just one of the sweetest bird songs on the planet? I remember working at the bird store and listening to the Stokes' bird call cds and every time the Baird's sparrow song played, I would think to myself, "What a pretty song! What must it be like to hear that out in the wild?" The other target bird was a Sprague's pipit, which was singing and displaying nearby. Some bird festival attendees wished the Baird's sparrow would quiet down so they could hear the pipit a little better. Last year, I had the exact opposite problem, I wished the pipits would be quieter so I could hear the Baird's! Ah, life.

Here we have a herd of birders nestled in the grass, enjoying lunch in the glorious sun after a great morning of birding. Seeing all those life birds makes a body hungry.

When I'm on the prairie, I myself get a misty-eyed. To the group, I say that it's allergies (and sometimes it is) but all the different bird songs, insect buzzing, and wind combine to a chorus that would bring Mozart to his knees--it's so beautiful and grasps a strong hold on every single one of your senses, you are forced to enjoy it. I can tell you how wonderful everything is, and link to individual songs of birds, but until you hear it and see it for yourself all at one time, it's just too hard to communicate. It's kind of like tasting vanilla extract and thinking how kinda unimpressive that is. However, when you combine vanilla extract with some sugar, flour, eggs, butter, and chocolate chips--you get one heck of a cookie.

Whatever you do in life, find a way to visit a true prairie with your family at least once--it's a true North American treasure.

A Quick Burrowing Owl

Let The North Dakota Blog Updates Begin!

I have so many updates, where do I begin? I think I'll just be blogging all day long today and tomorrow. I must admit, the intense rain and cold winds on Thursday really put a damper (har har) on my excitement to go birding in North Dakota, but the rest of my time outdoors at the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival was nothing short of magical. Everyone should experience dawn on a prairie at least once in their lives.

Aren't we such a colorful group? That's Julie Zickefoose, Bill Thompson, Paul Baicich, and me having a great time on the prairie. I love being able to see my friends face to face as opposed to email, but really all of us were so busy giving programs, leading trips, meeting people, and answering questions that we barely had time to say hello to each other. I wanted to head home early Sunday, I really missed Non Birding Bill but I tagged along for part of a Julie and Bill's field trip to spend a little time with them and to see...

a burrowing owl lurking in the grass. This particular owl was standing guard at a hole in a colony of Richardson's ground squirrels. The owners of the property have seen two owls, and chances were good the female was inside incubating some eggs. They also said they had a second nest on the land but it was not easy to access. The owls probably took over an already excavated hole, although burrowing owls are capable of digging a burrow by kicking backward with their feet and digging with their bills--but why dig when an excavating mammal already did the work? Burrowing owls eat mostly insects and invertebrates and are not a primary threat to the ground squirrel colony. However, burrowing owls will eat small mammals so a tiny, young ground squirrel would be fair game.

When our group had arrived at the colony looking for the owl, we could see a low flying buteo flying away with a Richardson's ground squirrel dangling from its talons. Not sure which one it was, it was flying directly towards the sun and could have been a red-tailed hawk or Swainson's hawk.

Out beyond the burrow with the owls, we could see some very old box cars. The family that owned the property said that the dilapidated box cars were home to Clark Gable's grandparents and father--and Clark probably visited. As it was time for the rest of the group to press on, the family was kind enough to give me permission to explore them, warning that there really wasn't much left inside--but how could I resist?

They weren't lying. There was nothing left inside. There were no faded and weathered Clark Gable dressed as Rhett Butler glossies with an autograph reading, "Nana and Grampy, thanks for the memories! Love, Lil' Clarkie" tacked to the walls. The floors inside were covered with several layers of mud and cow pies. Any walls that remained standing were nesting sites for barn swallows. I wondered about the family times that were spent there, did they notice the birds singing outside? How did they survive the winter in a couple of box cars before the invention of Gortex? What made them choose this site to spend their lives? What were the families hopes? fears? What were evenings like at the end of the day? As I was marveling at this, I started to hear an incredibly high pitched "seep". It was akin to the sound of night migrants calling to each other. What bird could that have been?

A quick scan with the binos revealed barking Richardson's ground squirrels. Apparently, I was grounds for alarm. I love the shot that I digiscoped above. The ground squirrel's mouth is open so wide for such a high pitched little bark. Eventually, the squirrels settled down and started their feeding and chasing despite the human lumbering around them.

As I came around to the front of the box cars, I was surprised and delighted to see a burrowing owl in flight! I've never seen one fly before, only roosting outside a burrow or perched on top of sign posts. What a cute little bouncy flight--an it even hovered like a kestrel! I think I surprised it as I came around the front of the cars, it stopped mid hover and took off well over to my right and stood on the ground. You can't see it in the photo, but the bird is near some stones and with the naked eye, the bird looked like a smaller stone. I apologized to the owl for interrupting the hunt and headed to my car and home and NBB.

A Wee Monarch Caterpillar Post--and a bird.

The banding has been on the slow side this spring at Carpenter. I'm not attributing that to an overall problem, after all we only meet on Fridays--maybe I would be posting something different if we were banding five days a week. Maybe it's time to change net location--who can say at this point with just anecdotal evidence from banding once a week.

But the awesome thing about Carpenter is that if the banding is slow we can easily find other nature to occupy out time. This week it was the monarch butterflies that caught our attention:

Since I've been noticing so many monarch butterfly eggs everywhere else I've wandered, I thought I would see what the milkweed around Carpenter would yield--LOADS. The leaf in the above photo shows two eggs--believe it or not, there was a third egg on the top side of the leaf too! That's unusual, monarchs tend to lays eggs on the underside of the leaf. These eggs are about to hatch, you can see (assuming you can see the eggs) that they are dark, when they are first laid, monarch eggs are a cream color (like the ones I found last weekend). In case you're having trouble viewing the eggs, here is a close up:

See the dark spot towards the top of the egg? That's the little caterpillar head. This little cat is chewing its way out of the egg. This is also what gives the about to hatch egg a dark color.

Eventually, one of the eggs did hatch! So Tiny! It's hard to believe that in about two weeks this will be a ginormous caterpillar. And yes, in case you are having trouble seeing it...

Here is an up close shot of the freshly hatched cat. It will eat a small bit more of the egg casing and then begin to chew on the monarch leaf itself. They are so small at this point that it will just chew the top few layers of the leaf and may not make a complete hole to the other side.

It is a dangerous world this tiny creature must face. So many things can eat it at this point. If it doesn't get eaten by some other insect or bird, there is still the danger that a wasp or fly will lay eggs inside the cat which will eat its insides, killing the monarch caterpillar when the larvae emerge through the skin. It truly is a miracle that any monarch caterpillar makes to a butterfly.

I was surprised to find a caterpillar that was about five days old nearby. It was all alone, perhaps all of the others its age were eaten? This cat was on a leaf with no chew marks which meant that it was probably shedding--chew marks draw attention to potential predators and lets them know you are nearby. If you want to shed your skin--a time when you are immobile and incredibly vulnerable, you want to be incognito.

If you look close in this photo, you can see the old head sliding down revealing the new larger head behind it. The new head is not only larger, but very yellow. The skin splits right about where the old head connects to the skin on the back. Once the head is off, the rest of the skin will be pushed towards the butt end of the caterpillar where it will collect in a small heap.

After looking through the milkweed, I noticed a downy woodpecker fly to a tree and disappear--then I saw the hole! When the bird would poke his head out of the hole, the black and white feathers totally blended into the tree. He must still be busy excavating the hole, you could see wood chips on the tip of his bill and the top of his head. Cute.